This
is the third of French filmmaker and former Cahiers'
critic Eric Rohmer's ("Pauline at the Beach"/"Love in
the Afternoon"/"Claire's Knee") adult dramas that are
based on his six moral tales. This delightful art film
was Rohmer's breakthrough film and established him as
an internationally celebrated filmmaker. It's a
fascinating talky intellectual film that takes place
one evening between two would-be lovers, who manage to
have a chaste evening together even though there's a
mutual attraction. It's an excellent pic about
relationships and how difficult it can be to find love
and live a moral life based on either religion or
belief. It also
brings up for thought Pascal's wager: "If a man bets on God's
existence, and God does not
exist, then a man loses nothing; but if a man bets on
God's existence, and God does exist, then his reward is
infinite."

The
34-year-old bachelor engineer Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a world
traveller, living previously in Canada and Chile, and
a practicing
Catholic and avid but critical admirer of Pascal, has
a new position in the French provinces of Clermont
Ferrand with Michelin.
During the Christmas season he accidentally bumps into
an old acquaintance he hasn't seen for 14 years, the
Marxist philosophy professor at the local college,
Vidal (Antoine
Vitez), who invites him after the Christmas
Eve Mass to join him in visiting his free-thinking
radical girlfriend Maud (Françoise Fabian), an
attractive divorced doctor with a young
daughter. Vidal tells Jean-Louis they are now just friends and he
thinks she would be a perfect match for him even
though they have opposite philosophies. After a few
hours of booze and talk, especially about what
attracts the engineer to Pascal and what turns him
off. When the talk grows tired, Vidal makes his exit
and goes to his nearby residence. But since it's
snowing and Jean-Louis
lives far away in Ceyrat, Maud insists he stays
overnight. Though disagreeing on religion and other
cultural issues, there's a physical attraction between
them as they have a long conversation while alone in
her bedroom with her under the covers. What is going through the
head of Jean-Louis, is that he spotted at the Sunday
Mass a beautiful student he never met before, Marie-Christine Barrault (Françoise), and
made a vow he would meet and marry her. It's his
intention to stick to that vow even while being
seduced and liking the seduction. The tension rises as
to how will the night end, as Jean-Louis fights off the
temptation to have what he considers to be a
meaningless affair. While most males in the audience
would see nothing wrong in getting an easy lay, a
one-night stand, and still pursuing their dream girl.

The indie black-and-white
pic became a surprise box office hit, and was
nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film.